1.19.2007

daily princetonian responds

The Daily Princetonian has a story about the controversy sparked by its own "Lian Ji" joke column the other day: Joke op-ed sparks ire, controversy. Here's their official response to emailers, with the usual "we did not intend to offend" excuse:

Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Since publishing Wednesday's joke issue, we have learned that some of ourreaders were offended by a column satirizing Asian stereotypes. Thisresponse surprised us: We did not seek to offend, and we sincerely regrethaving upset some of our readers.

Many criticisms of the column, however, do not recognize its purpose. Usinghyperbole and an unbelievable string of stereotypes, we hoped to lampoonracism by showing it at its most outrageous. We embraced racist language inorder to strangle it. At its worst, the column was a bad joke; at its best,it provoked serious thought about issues of race, fairness and diversity.

The column in question was penned by a diverse group of students - includingseveral Asians on our senior editorial staff - who had no malicious intent.Given our purpose, we are deeply troubled by and reject the allegation ofracism.

We welcome debate about our column, especially in the pages of thisnewspaper. We hope our readers will see the column for what it is and thatthe opportunity for constructive discussion about race and race-relatedissues will not be lost.